Aletta Diefenbach, Jürgen Gerhards, Elgen Sauerborn and Christian von Scheve (Freie Universität Berlin), Veronika Zink (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), Sighard Neckel (University of Hamburg), Nur Yasemin Ural (University of Leipzig)

Language: German

This Legacy Session addresses a question that has shaped public debate for many years—one that provokes both fascination and unease: Is society really becoming more emotional? A look at public discourse over the past two decades seems to support this assumption. Terms such as emotional polarization, “angry citizens,” politics of rage, affective polarization, emotional intelligence, and empathy circulate widely, alongside discussions of hate speech, shitstorms, mindfulness, hurt feelings, flight shame, climate anxiety, climate grief, and broader insecurities and fears of downward mobility.

Sociological answers to the question of increasing emotionalization, however, vary widely. This is precisely where the session begins: it takes the diagnosis of emotionalization as a starting point and brings different theoretical perspectives into dialogue. To this end, we have invited four former members of the CRC, who will explore these perspectives in a moderated discussion, introduced by short opening statements.

With Jürgen Gerhards and Sighard Neckel, the panel includes two former project leaders (PIs) who are among the most influential scholars in German-language sociology of emotions and who have helped to establish the field internationally. They are joined by two representatives of a younger generation—Nur Yasemin Ural and Veronika Zink—who bring distinct theoretical and methodological approaches. Both have contributed innovative perspectives on the relationship between emotions and society and have further developed key lines of research in the field.

This constellation promises a nuanced and insightful discussion, moderated by Polina Aronson.